Melinda Averhart

Senior Manager, National Audubon Society

Melinda Averhart joined the Audubon team in 2017 and has worked in Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. She graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University in Southwest Florida, where she began working to protect beach-nesting birds after the BP Oil Disaster. Melinda relocated to the northern Gulf Coast and worked as a Biological Technician in Louisiana and Mississippi. She has spent the past five years as Mississippi’s Stewardship Manager, leading and growing the coastal program by engaging with a diverse network of partners and stakeholders. Melinda has held varying board positions with the Mississippi Coast Audubon Society and currently serves as the chapter’s president. She is a Master Naturalist who serves on the Mississippi Sound Estuary Program’s Advisory committee. She was inspired by her father who was a lifelong conservation biologist and is proud to carry on his work today.